


Lie to Me

by fojee



Series: Puzzle Pieces [9]
Category: I Remember You - Fandom, Korean Drama, 너를 기억해 | Hello Monster
Genre: Dark, M/M, Multi, also featuring homophobia, nothing too bad I promise, psychos, some unresolved foster-mother tension, the asian edition, this got unexpectedly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-03
Updated: 2015-09-03
Packaged: 2018-04-18 18:43:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4716584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fojee/pseuds/fojee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>dancing between truths and lies</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lie to Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lindra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lindra/gifts).



> Made a cover for this one that I'm really happy about.

 

_There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.  
\- Friedrich Nietzsche_

Even though they technically work together, it becomes a rarer and rarer thing to share a meal with his foster mother. Hyun admits it is mostly his doing. But one day, he finds standing in his office the woman he fondly calls Ahjumma. She's not smiling.

"Have dinner with me," she says. And by her tone, no is not an option.

Over the whole meal, Hyun keeps the conversation light, talking about past cases and idiot cops who can't see what's right in front of them. He fails to tease her out of her black mood.

She gets to the point while they're serving dessert, waiting until the server leaves before grabbing his right hand and holding it fast to the table, as if it would keep him from walking out.

"I saw you the other night, Hyun-a. You were with a man, and the way the two of you were together..." Her voice trails off, but she held his gaze like she did his hand.

Hyun thought of all the things he could say. From _That's my brother._ to _Wait til you find out who else is sharing my bed._ But he doesn't say a word.

"What are you thinking?" She asks, worry and anger coloring her words. "You work for the police! Any hint of scandal and you could lose all credibility as a psychologist and as a witness."

He gives her a look she's quite familiar with, the one that holds barely controlled impatience at other people's stupidity. 

She tries to appeal to his sense of reason. "I know you'll be fine no matter what, but what about the other person? What will his family and co-workers think?"

At the implied threat to Min, Hyun noticeably bristles. "He's an adult who makes his own choices, despite knowing the risks."

"So if he gets thrown out by his family, or fired at his job, what will you do then? Take him to America with you?"

_I_ am _his family!_ Hyun wants to shout, but he takes a deep breath and thinks about her question seriously. "That depends," he says. 

"On what?"

_On what Lee Joon Young and Min both want,_ he thinks. Then grimaces at the thought that any more of his choices could ever depend on Lee Joon Young. Out loud he simply answers, "if he wants to go."

It shuts her up for a second. She doesn't know how deep this thing has gotten, but from the bubbling emotions under Hyun's calm façade, it's not a casual fling. She reassesses her options.

"Don't look like that, Ahjumma," Hyun adds. "I won't leave unless there's no other choice. Not when I'll be uprooting somebody else."

"I looked him up, you know," she says softly. "Attorney Jung Sun-Ho. A brilliant young man with a long, prosperous career ahead of him. Do you want to burden him with such a secret he will have to keep all his life?"

Hyun is silent for a full minute before responding in an equally soft voice. "Oh, but I get it. After all, what secret is there in this world that doesn't get revealed eventually? Isn't that right, Officer Hyun Ji-Soo-sshi?"

His use of her name feels like a slap. And the words themselves feels like nails to her heart. "Why did you really come back to Korea?" She asks him, her voice wavering. 

"I felt it was time to face my past." It took all his willpower to speak evenly.

That same expression of pity and guilt, the one he hates the most, crosses her face. "Did you remember something, Hyun-a?"

"Just bits and pieces. Not enough to put together into a coherent whole." It isn't exactly a lie. 

"Just tell me what I can do to help."

_You can tell the truth, but we both know you'll never do that,_ Hyun thinks.

He had asked Joon Young about how Ahjumma figured into all this, on a day that Min was otherwise occupied. Joon Young had looked at him in that penetrating way of his, as if gauging what he was ready to hear. "We helped each other out. She moved up in her career, and I got free," he said simply. "If you are looking for a scapegoat, Hyun-a, she'll do fine. But we both know all the threads lead back to me."

"And you were the one who told her that Min was dead," Hyun guessed. "Why would you do that?"

"I thought it would give you peace," Joon Young said. "There's nothing like the wound that a missing person leaves behind. When you were making a life for yourself in America, I thought I did the right thing, Hyun-a."

"But it wasn't fair to Min," Hyun finished. 

"Min and I have talked it out," Joon Young said. "He knows I made a mistake. And he's forgiven me, more or less."

"Has he?" Hyun asked, trying to divine the truth in Joon Young's eyes. "You played us all like a puppeteer. I should hate you. I could so very easily hate you."

Joon Young leaned forward until their breaths mingled together. "And yet?" He asked.

"And yet I still dance to your tune," Hyun breathed out. "How did you get under my skin like this?"

Joon Young laughed softly. "You got under mine, too, Hyun-a."

"What else are you hiding in that head of yours?" Hyun murmured. 

A light switched on behind Joon Young's eyes. "Wouldn't you like to know?" He asked, voice teasing.

"Maybe. Maybe I just want you to lie to me," Hyun answered.

"Hyun-a..."

Hyun looked away. "There are still holes in my memories."

Joon Young cradled the back of his head with one hand, turning his face with the other. "Perhaps you've forgotten them because you needed to. When you are ready, they will come back. I believe that, Hyun-a. Give yourself time."

"It's already been years," Hyun started to say but the older man interrupted.

"Years you've spent closing yourself off to the past. Years you've spent in self-imposed exile, in isolation. We are here with you now, and you will never be alone again, Hyun-a. What will come, will come." Joon Young kissed him, and it was uncharacteristically gentle, slow and sweet.

Hyun almost touches his lips, before remembering who is in front of him now. His foster mother looks at him quizzically. He shakes his head, trying to remember the last thing she said to him.

"I appreciate your concern as always, Ahjumma," he says, for once forgoing the sarcasm. She was Joon Young's victim too, and has been suffocating under her secrets all these years. "But please don't worry too much about me. I'm dealing with my past, and I will deal with my future." 

She only looks slightly reassured. But he smiles warmly and she smiles back in reaction.

It feels like an empty gesture, a band-aid to cover their cracked relationship. But maybe someday, they can salvage something from the broken shards. A piece of truth amidst all these lies.

\---

"What else are you hiding in that head of yours?"

Hyun is more adept than most at reading him, but even he could only glimpse a part of Joon Young. _A failure of the imagination, perhaps,_ he thinks. _The boy is smart and dispassionate, but not ruthless enough. Not like Min-a. Not monster enough._

Joon Young has several reasons for everything he does. He hands over a little bit of truth to soothe the pain in his boys' eyes. A little bitter pill they can swallow. But perhaps Hyun understands it better than Joon Young thinks. 

"Maybe I just want you to lie to me."

The truth of it was--or one of them at least--he wanted to see what Hyun would do. Hyun who has lost both father and brother, and his memories as well. Hyun who was given a lie to keep him from wondering. 

And then there was the girl, Cha Ji An, whose father he had killed that night thirteen years ago. A weak man, though he obviously loved his daughter. Cha Ji An was given a lie, too, but it didn't come from his hands, and it didn't give her peace. He never planned on keeping an eye on her. Her father was just a tool, after all. But when this talk of accomplices in the media reached his ears, he began to pay attention. The child suffered, too. And she suffers unto this day for lack of a definite answer to her question: where is her father? 

Humans are infinitely interesting precisely because of their unpredictability. It wasn't a controlled experiment. Too much differences, in the subjects alone. But they both yielded beautiful results. Hyun with his precise control that so easily breaks when you apply the right pressure, with his quick mind hiding his needy heart. Ji An with her slow but steady fire, that has already brought her to the attention of her superiors, with her sense of right and wrong that somehow gave way when her need for vengeance was strong enough. 

And then there were his other children. Ones who had been left shattered, and never managed to put themselves back together. Ones who had turned their hate inwards. Ones who remained weak, jumping from one abuser to another, as if caught in a loop. Ones who struggled to bury their past and emerged stronger and harder. Ones who embraced the darkness and whatever could be found there.

Lee Joon Young finds these lost children and gives them a chance at freedom. But watching what they do with it is the fun part. 

It's fun, too, to have a hand in the people they're becoming. 

And it's even more fun, to pick the ones that were extra-special, and invite them closer, closer, until he can hold them in his hands.

And crush them any time he wants.

Not that he will, of course.

No. He doesn't think he will. Maybe.

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I wouldn't be able to upload this tonight. Good thing AO3 went back up... Coming up next: the third in the Art... series. (And the longest story yet.) Guys, I really thought I'd write fluff. But it's all angst, angst, angst up the wazoo...


End file.
